Managing a virtual waiting room for online meetings

ABSTRACT

A server or other computing device manages meetings in a virtual meeting room on behalf of a virtual meeting room owner. A request is received from an attendee to join a meeting in the virtual meeting room. A determination is made, based on configurations set by the virtual meeting room owner, whether to connect the attendee to a virtual waiting room. The attendee is connected to the virtual waiting room in accordance with the configurations set by the virtual meeting room owner.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is an application for reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 10,091,257, and is adivisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/029,424, filed Sep. 23, 2020,which is also an application for reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 10,091,257.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the operation of personal meetingrooms.

BACKGROUND

Modern collaboration systems often provide virtual “personal meetingrooms” which can be assigned to individuals for their own (business)use. These rooms are dedicated to a single owner (even if the underlyingresources are shared) so the owner does not have to schedule room usewith server resources. The resources that support the virtual meetingroom appears to be dedicated to the meeting room owner. Thus, it iscommon for a virtual meeting room owner to plan meetings back-to-back inhis/her virtual meeting room.

A modicum of security is provided in that meetings do not start untilthe room owner joins and provides a password or other sort of secret tounlock and open the room. Once the owner is connected/logged into thevirtual meeting room, others can join the meeting room withoutconstraint. This can be a problem because meetings often run beyondtheir scheduled end time, and invitees to the next meeting in thepersonal meeting room will join the meeting in progress, causingconfusion and possibly hearing/seeing information not intended for them.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system to support virtual personalmeeting room/personal video conference bridge collaboration with avirtual waiting room, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example user interface for anin-progress meeting that may run up against a meeting plannedimmediately after the in-progress meeting, according to an exampleembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method for receiving from avirtual meeting room owner configurations for a virtual waiting roomassociated with the virtual meeting room, according to an exampleembodiment.

FIG. 4A is a diagram illustrating an example user interface for anin-progress meeting and showing in particular a notification and userinterface element to allow the meeting room owner to open the virtualwaiting room, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 4B is a diagram similar to FIG. 4B, but showing a notification tothe meeting room owner indicating that a particular attendee is in thevirtual waiting room, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a high-level flow chart depicting operations for the virtualwaiting room, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram for setting capabilities/functions of thevirtual waiting room, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 7A illustrates a user interface presented to attendees waiting inthe virtual waiting room, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 7B illustrates a user interface including a video program presentedto attendees waiting in the virtual waiting room, according to anexample embodiment.

FIG. 7C illustrates a user interface including a list or roster ofattendees who are in the virtual waiting room, according to an exampleembodiment.

FIG. 7D illustrates a user interface for the virtual waiting room thatenables full audio, video and content sharing capabilities among theattendees waiting in the virtual waiting room, according to an exampleembodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates a user interface presented to a meeting room ownerduring an in-progress meeting and including a notification of the numberand names of attendees in the virtual waiting room, according to anexample embodiment.

FIGS. 9A-9D illustrate a user interface presented to a meeting roomowner during progressive scenarios involving interaction between themeeting room owner and an attendee in the virtual waiting room,according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a server configured to support the virtualwaiting room according to an example embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Overview

In one embodiment, a server or other computing device manages meetingsin a virtual meeting room on behalf of a virtual meeting room owner. Arequest is received from an attendee to join a meeting in the virtualmeeting room. A determination is made, based on configurations set bythe virtual meeting room owner, whether to connect the attendee to avirtual waiting room. The attendee is connected to the virtual waitingroom in accordance with the configurations set by the virtual meetingroom owner.

Example Embodiments

Presented herein are embodiments for a virtual waiting room. The virtualwaiting room allows a single virtual meeting room to be used foradjacent meetings while avoiding the problem of participants of thesecond meeting inadvertently joining an earlier meeting that is runningbeyond its planned end time. Often when attendees join early it resultsin an unintentional barge-in on the previous meeting. The virtualwaiting room may also be used when virtual meeting room is not alreadyin use, but the host or meeting room owner has not yet logged into thevirtual meeting room. The virtual waiting room allows meetingparticipants to be collected until the meeting room owner is availableto join the meeting. The virtual waiting room involves the allocation ofresources to support some connectivity state with respect to the joiningattendees. There is a range of functions that may be provided by thevirtual waiting room, as described below. It is appreciated that as morefunctions are provided in the virtual waiting room, morecomputing/connectivity resources of a meeting server/video conferencebridge would be needed.

It is advantageous to keep the virtual waiting room simple to use buthave (optionally) available all the modes of interactions familiar fromreal-world waiting rooms. More specifically, presented herein areembodiments for the waiting room to become ready for attendees/invitees,for waiting room attendees to interact with each other while in thevirtual waiting room, and for meeting room owner interactions with thevirtual waiting room interactions.

In one form, the virtual meeting room may be supported by web-basedmeeting resources dedicated to a particular user, called the virtualmeeting room owner. In this case, the virtual meeting room is accessedvia web-based resources, and there is a universal resource link (URL)uniquely dedicated to a particular user who is the virtual meeting roomowner. The virtual meeting room is said to be a personal or privatevirtual meeting room. In another form, the virtual meeting room may besupported by video conference bridge resources dedicated to a particularuser. In this case, the virtual meeting room is a personal videoconference bridge number uniquely dedicated to a particular user who isthe virtual meeting room owner, and the virtual meeting room is accessedvia video conference bridge resources. In either case, whether aweb-based meeting resources or video conference bridge resources,essentially a single resource is allocated to an “owner” or “host” andto access it attendees need to simply enter or click on a URL, e.g.,https://www.webserviceprovider.com/join/meeting_room_owner_name, or bydialing or entering a video conference bridge number (or perhapsentering a PIN).

Referring first to FIG. 1 , a high level diagram is shown of a system 10that supports the virtual waiting room embodiments presented here. Thesystem includes a server 20 that communicates, via network 30, with aplurality of user devices 40(1)-40(N). Each user device 40(1)-40(N) runsa meeting client application 42(1)-42(N), respectively. The user devices40(1)-40(N) may take on a variety of forms, including, withoutlimitation, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a smartphone, atablet computer, a thin client device, a dedicated video terminal, etc.Each user device may further include a video camera 44, a microphone 46and a loudspeaker 48. Moreover, each user device may include a physicalkeyboard or software keyboard and mouse/pointing device or feature. Forsimplicity, these components are shown only on user device 40(1), thoughit is to be understood that user devices 40(2)-40(N) may also includethese components. In still another example, a user device may be a videoconference endpoint having an integrated camera and microphone.

The meeting client applications 42(1)-42(N) may be a browser application(with any suitable plug-in software), a smartphone application, a tabletapplication, or a hosted virtual desktop application running in a datacenter (cloud computing environment) on behalf of a thin client device.The network 30 may include any combination of a wired wide area network,wireless wide area network, wired local area network, wireless localarea network, etc.

The server 20 executes software to support virtual meeting rooms or apersonal video conference bridge to which users can connect via theirrespective user devices 40(1)-40(N). The virtual meetings may includeaudio and/or video of the respective users, as well as shared content(documents, data, audio, and video) among a plurality of userparticipants during a meeting. A given user may be assigned his ownpersonal virtual meeting room such that any meeting he/she scheduled isconducted in that personal meeting room. He/she is said to be the ownerof his/her personal meeting room. The term “host” also corresponds tothe meeting room owner in this context. A user can personalize his/hervirtual personal meeting room with various attributes. In accordancewith embodiments presented herein, the server 20 may support both avirtual meeting room pictorially represented at reference numeral 50 anda virtual waiting room pictorially represented at reference numeral 60for a virtual meeting room owner. For example, the virtual meeting room50 may be associated with the URLhttps://www.webserviceprovider.com/join/meeting_room_owner_name, or witha particular video conference bridge number (a sequence of numbers of apredetermined length, e.g., 556323411). As explained furtherhereinafter, the server 20 instantiates a virtual waiting room for ameeting room owner when attendees for a next meeting hosted by themeeting owner connect to the server to join the next meeting when thereis a meeting still in progress in the virtual meeting room, or whenthere is no in-progress meeting but the owner has not yet connected toserver to open the virtual meeting room.

The server 20 also communicates, via network 30, with a calendar server70 and an enterprise organization directory 80. The calendar server 70maintains schedules for users, including scheduling of virtual meetingssupported by the meeting server 20. The enterprise organizationdirectory 80 stores data for users in an enterprise organization andrelationships between users, e.g., corporate organizational hierarchy.

The server 20 may be a meeting server that manages the operations ofweb-based meetings, or a video conference bridge that manages operationsof video conferences (which can also support content sharing and otherfeatures that are available in web-based meetings).

Reference is now made to FIG. 2 . FIG. 2 shows an example user interface(UI) screen for a first meeting, called an existing meeting, shown atreference numeral 100. The UI 100 for the existing meeting includesallocated regions for video for the various meeting participants,including a region 102 for video for the meeting host, region 104 forvideo for attendee 1 and region 106 for attendee 2. In addition, thereis a region 108 for a participant to share content. For example, ameeting attendee may share content at any given time during the virtualmeeting.

For purposes of explanation, the first meeting, meeting 1, is from 1-2pm and a second meeting, meeting 2, is planned for 2-3 pm. The virtualmeeting room is not scheduled, rather it is dedicated to the meetingroom owner. However, the meeting room owner typically notifies attendeesof the planned meeting time and meeting room identifier (e.g., auniversal resource locator) for joining purposes. The meeting room mayhave no awareness of the identification of invitees.

Operation is as follows. The meeting room owner enters the virtualmeeting room for meeting 1. Any participants can join the virtualmeeting room once the owner enters the meeting room, that is, once theowner logs into the meeting room.

At some point towards the end of meeting 1, the behavior of the roomchanges. From this time on, new attendees do not enter the virtualmeeting room (even though the owner is in the room). This is becausesuch attendees that join typically towards the very end of a meeting areconnecting for the next meeting, and not for the existing meeting. Thus,attendees attempting to join at this point forward are staged in a“virtual waiting room” and the owner may signaled that people arewaiting for the next meeting. FIG. 2 shows at reference numeral 120, indotted line, the meeting room for meeting 2, yet to be started. This isfor illustration purposes only. If attendees for meeting 2 join whilemeeting 1 is still in-progress (towards the end of meeting 1), thevirtual waiting room will be instantiated and the attendees for meeting2 are connected into the virtual waiting room according toconfigurations set by the meeting room owner.

The virtual meeting room operation changes as it approaches a “meetingboundary”—the time when one meeting ends and the other begins. After ameeting has lasted for some minimum time with the room owner and atleast one other attendee, the waiting room is enabled to be opened,either automatically or manually. There are several ways to mark thisboundary time, as described below.

Reference is now made to FIG. 3 . FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart for aconfiguration process 200 by which the meeting room owner may setconfigurations for instantiating a virtual waiting room associated withhis/her virtual meeting room. The process 200 may be performed at anytime so that the meeting room owner can make changes/updates to theconfigurations for the virtual waiting room. At 210, it is determinedwhether the meeting room owner wishes to manually trigger the virtualwaiting room when needed. If manual instantiation of the virtual waitingroom is desired by the meeting room owner, then at 210, the meetingserver will display a trigger button or other user interface elementthat is displayed to the meeting room owner when attendees to the nextmeeting join towards the end of an existing meeting that is stillin-progress. Otherwise, the process continues to 215.

With the manual instantiation of the virtual waiting room, the roomowner could realize that the second meeting will be starting soon andset an “open waiting room” indication so that the waiting room will beused for any attendees that join the virtual meeting room from that timeonward. An explicit notification informs attendees to wait and they willbe automatically entered into the meeting room (from the virtual waitingroom) when the previous meeting ends. They do not have to retry to jointhe second meeting.

At 215, the meeting room owner is given the option of having the waitingroom automatically open X (e.g., 5) minutes before the start of aplanned meeting. The meeting room owner can select the value for X, andthis information is stored at 220 by the meeting server. With thisconfiguration, the virtual waiting room automatically opens X minutesbefore the start of the planned meeting and any attendees that join themeeting room from that point onward are directed into the virtualwaiting room.

At 225, if the meeting room owner does not choose the option at 215, theoption is presented to the meeting room owner to automatically open thewaiting room X minutes before typical meeting start times, e.g., on thehour or half-hour. At 230, if this option is selected, information isstored by the server. Thus, at 225 and 230, the meeting room operationmay change at the times that meeting conventionally end (typically theend of the hour or half hour—controlled by a user setting). The waitingroom automatically opens a pre-specified number of minutes before thistime.

If the meeting room owner does not choose option 225, then at 235, theoption is presented to set a desired/predetermined waiting room opentime. This may be set for a specific planned meeting on an ad hoc basiswhen the meeting room owner sends out an invite for a meeting. At 240,the server receives the predetermined time from the meeting room ownerat which to open the waiting room, and stores this information. Thiscould be integrated with an existing calendar scheduler. The meetingroom uses a pre-specified time before the time of next meeting toautomatically open the waiting room for attendees.

Once the existing meeting (meeting 1) ends (e.g., 3 minutes after 2 pm)and people in that meeting have exited the room, the room owner cansignal the server to let the people in the virtual waiting room entervirtual meeting room for the next meeting (meeting 2). They enter asusual and the next meeting starts. If an attendee from meeting 1 is alsoinvited to meeting 2 he or she can simply stay in the room as the owneradmits people from the waiting room to start meeting.

FIG. 4A illustrates, at reference numeral 250, an example user interfaceelement and notification presented to the meeting room owner, inaccordance with the configuration set at step 210 in FIG. 3 . Thenotification and user interface button are presented to the meeting roomowner only during an existing meeting, and includes text to explain thatthere are attendees waiting for the next meeting, and that the meetingroom owner can click a button to open the virtual waiting room so thatthose attendees/invitees who are waiting can be connected to the virtualwaiting room. In other words, analogous to a real meeting room, thenotification at 250 informs the meeting room owner that there are one ormore invitees who have requested to enter the room, but have not beenallowed to enter yet. In another example, the virtual waiting room maybe automatically opened (auto-starts) as people attempt to join the mainmeeting room, in which case the meeting room owner/host is notifiedappropriately.

Still another virtual waiting room option that can be used to determinethe virtual waiting room experience for attendees and the meeting roomowner, is based on whether there is access to the list of invitees tothe next meeting for which the virtual waiting room may be needed. Ifthe server has access to the names/identifiers of the invitees for thenext meeting, then those persons may be handled differently in terms oftheir access to the virtual waiting room. For example, persons who wereon the original list of invitees set up by the meeting room owner may beautomatically put into the virtual waiting room when they join and anexisting meeting is in process in the meeting room. Conversely, personswho were not on the original list of invitees but obtain the invitation(perhaps forwarded from an invitee on the original list) do not getautomatically directed into the virtual waiting room. They simply arenotified that the meeting room is not available, and are advised toattempt to log in again later. In still another example, if an inviteeis invited to both the current meeting (but has not joined it yet) andthe next meeting, the invitee is admitted to the current meeting.

As still a further variation, certain attendees who have a predeterminedposition within an organization or predetermined relationship to themeeting owner or to other attendees of a meeting may be handleddifferently in terms of their access to the virtual meeting room. Forexample, if a person who is in the senior leadership of an organizationor the “boss” of the meeting owner joins a meeting room while anothermeeting is in-progress, the meeting server would recognize theimportance of such persons and automatically place them in the virtualmeeting room, and present a notification (audio or text) only to themeeting room owner in the existing meeting, the notification indicatingthat persons of high importance (perhaps including their names) havejoined and are in the virtual waiting room.

FIG. 4B illustrates an example notification 260 that may be presented tothe meeting room owner when a senior executive or the meeting roomowner's “boss” has joined for the next meeting. The notificationindicates the name of the person who has joined and his/her title orrelationship to the meeting room owner, and also indicates that personhas been sent the virtual waiting room, waiting for the start of thenext meeting. This will alert the meeting room owner to finish theexisting meeting promptly so that he/she does not keep the importantperson waiting too long in the virtual waiting room.

It should be understood that the virtual waiting room embodimentspresented herein may be useful when the virtual meeting room owner hasnot yet connected to the virtual meeting room, not just because he/sheis in another meeting in the virtual meeting room. For example, thevirtual meeting room owner may be away from his user device, in anothermeeting outside of his/her virtual meeting room, etc.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart for a method 300 performed by the serverthat manages meetings in a virtual meeting room on behalf of a virtualmeeting room owner (host). In particular, the method 300 involvesoperations performed by the server in determining whether persons areconnected into a virtual waiting room when they join for a meeting inthe virtual meeting room either at a time when another meeting is inprogress in the virtual meeting room or when the virtual meeting roomowner has not joined the meeting for other reasons. At 310, a request isreceived from an attendee to join a meeting in the virtual meeting room.At 320, the meeting server determines, based on configurations set bythe virtual meeting room owner, whether to connect the attendee to avirtual waiting room. At 330, the server connects the attendee to thevirtual waiting room in accordance with the configurations set by thevirtual meeting room owner. If the attendee request to connect to thevirtual meeting room/waiting room is denied, a notification would bepresented to the attendee (e.g., “Your Request to Enter the Meeting Roomis Denied.”)

The operations of the virtual waiting room can vary according totradeoffs between resource consumption and waiting experience. Referenceis now made to FIG. 6 . FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart 400 that depictsthe various operations that are possible in the virtual waiting room,and which may be configurable by the virtual meeting room owner. Theprocess starts at 410 where the virtual meeting room owner sets thecapabilities of the virtual waiting room. At 420, a configuration can beset in which a simple text and/or audio message is played out to theinvitees/attendees in the virtual waiting room. The message may be assimple as “Your meeting will start once the host joins. Please wait herein the virtual waiting room. Thank you.” The video message may be of themeeting room owner.

FIG. 7A shows an example of a text message displayed to users who areconnected to a virtual waiting room. The message, shown at referencenumeral 500, may simply state: “The host/meeting room owner is not yetavailable. Please wait.” In addition to or instead of a text message,the meeting server may play out an audio or video message explainingthat the room owner is not yet available, either because he/she isfinishing a previous meeting or because he/she is away and has notconnected to the system yet. That message may be repeated to ensure theattendees realize they should wait. The waiting attendees have no way tointeract with each other.

At 430, a configuration can be set in which a video program/segment isplayed to those in the virtual waiting room.

FIG. 7B shows a video program 510 may be played out to the attendees.The video program may be an advertisement promoting a product orservice, an instruction video, a company video memorandum, etc. The textmessage 500 indicating that the attendees should wait, may also bepresented. Again, the waiting attendees have no way to interact witheach other in this example.

At 440, a configuration may be set to display a roster/list of theattendees/invitees who are in the virtual waiting room. This may beuseful so that people can see who else has already joined a plannedmeeting and is waiting in the virtual waiting room.

FIG. 7C illustrates a list or roster of attendees/invitees who are inthe virtual meeting room is shown. The list or roster, shown atreference numeral 520, is displayed to the attendees so each attendeeknows who else has already joined the meeting. The meeting roomowner/host's name is shown in italics to indicate that he/she has notyet joined. The attendees may or may not have the ability to interactwith each other. For example, the attendees may have the ability to chatwith each other, as shown at reference numeral 525.

At 450, a configuration may be set to enable full (audio, video andcontent sharing) interaction between attendees in the virtual waitingroom while waiting for the meeting owner to end a meeting in-progress inthe virtual meeting room. This allows the persons who are connected tothe virtual waiting room to begin conducting business amongstthemselves. Once the meeting room owner joins, all of the attendees inthe virtual waiting room are seamlessly moved into the virtual meetingroom, with all functions (recording, content sharing, video, audio) thatwere ongoing on the virtual waiting room continuing, uninterrupted, inthe virtual meeting room.

FIG. 7D illustrates a version of the virtual waiting room in which fullaudio, video and content sharing interaction is enabled among attendees.Icons may be presented next to each attendee's name in the roster 520 toindicate who is speaking at any moment. There is a shared content window530 that allows any attendee to share content for viewing by otherattendees. In addition, video from each of the attendees may bepresented, as shown at reference numerals 540(1)-540(4). Thus, FIG. 7Dillustrates an example in which the waiting attendees may be placed in avirtual waiting room that has all the capabilities of the virtualmeeting room—they can see, and hear each other for example. A splashscreen and an on-screen reminder may be presented to explain that themeeting has not yet started but attendees can interact as they wouldexpect in a virtual meeting room.

Any combination of the configurations shown in FIG. 7A-7D may bepossible. In all of the configurations described herein, once thevirtual meeting room owner joins the meeting (either by ending the priormeeting in the virtual meeting room or logging in to the meeting serverand starting the planned meeting), the virtual waiting room is at thatpoint closed so that anyone else who joins the meeting will join thevirtual meeting room.

In all these virtual waiting room capabilities examples, waitingattendees are signaled that the room owner is not yet available and theyshould wait. The server may also notify the room owner, in anin-progress meeting, that attendees for the next meeting are waiting.

In accordance with the embodiments described herein in connection withFIGS. 1-7A-7D, attendees are automatically directed into the virtualwaiting room, according to configurations set by the meeting room owner,or according to default configurations. The meeting room owner does nothave to make decisions about referring attendees to the waiting room,etc. The meeting room owner may be notified that there are waitingattendees but does not have to act on that information. This simplifiesuse of the meeting room and avoids unnecessary meeting interruptions,particularly when a meeting room owner has back-to-back meetings.

Reference is now made to FIGS. 8 and 9A-9D for examples of interactionsbetween the meeting room owner and a waiting attendee. Referring firstto FIG. 8 , in this example, virtual meeting room 100 includes attendeevideo 102 and 104 and shared content 108. At reference numeral 550 is atextual notification to the meeting owner indicating that there areother attendees for the next meeting in the virtual waiting room. Thenames of the attendees in the virtual waiting room may also be includedin the textual notification 550. There is no direct interaction betweenthe meeting room owner and the waiting attendees in this example. Themeeting room owner is only notified that there are waiting attendees,and possibly their identities.

The meeting room owner/host may be notified that people are arriving andwaiting by a second active presence screen on their display. The hostmay also prompted to message the attendees with an expected start time(like “running over, meeting starting in 2 minutes”). This can beimplemented using an Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)messaging infrastructure. The host may be presented with a userinterface control, shown at reference numeral 560, to bring attendees inthe virtual waiting room into the virtual meeting room which results inthe temporary virtual meeting room resources being returned to thesystem.

FIGS. 9A-9D illustrate progressively more complex scenarios forinteractions between a meeting room owner and a waiting attendee. FIG.9A illustrates an example in which a virtual meeting room owner Tom isconducting a meeting with Charles. The meeting room 600 includes videoof Charles shown at 610, and Tom's shared content (white-board,documents, slides, etc.) 620. During this meeting in virtual meetingroom 600, a new meeting attendee Bob arrives. Since Tom is still in ameeting with Charles, Bob is automatically put into a virtual waitingroom, according to any of the embodiments described above in connectionwith FIGS. 1-7D. Video for Bob, shown at reference numeral 630, ispresented to Tom. Only Tom, the meeting room owner, sees the video ofBob. Tom can signal to Bob that he is still in another meeting (withCharles), and asks Bob to wait. For example, Tom may send a chatmessage, click a button (shown at 640) that will cause the meetingserver to notify Bob that Tom is still in a meeting, etc. Thenotification to Tom that Bob has joined can have a quick reply optionwith one or more pre-established (“canned”) responses that can beselected.

FIG. 9B illustrates a scenario similar to FIG. 9A but taken a stepfurther. In this scenario, the meeting room owner Tom asks the meetingattendee Charles to hold for a moment. Tom then clicks a button 650 thatcauses the meeting server to switch to a full voice and videoconversation with Bob (who is in the virtual waiting room). The meetingroom owner Tom and attendee Bob briefly interact via voice and video. Byclicking the button again, Tom returns to the meeting room with Charlesand Bob stays in the virtual waiting room. When Tom ends the meetingwith Charles, Bob is admitted to the meeting room with Tom.

FIGS. 9C and 9D illustrate a scenario similar to FIG. 8B, but takenstill further. At some point after the meeting room owner Tom interactswith Bob via voice and video, by clicking the button 650 and clickingthe button 650 again to return to the meeting with Charles, the meetingroom owner Tom decides that Bob should be admitted/added to thein-progress meeting with Charles. To add/admit Bob to the meeting, themeeting room owner Tom clicks another button 660. When this happens, Bobis added to the in-progress meeting and an example of the user interfacethat Tom sees is shown in FIG. 9D. Bob is moved from the virtual waitingroom and added to the virtual meeting room with any other attendeealready in the virtual meeting room. The meeting room owner Tom,attendee Charles and attendee Bob can all interact with each other inthe virtual meeting room. Once Bob is added to the virtual meeting room,and assuming there is nobody else in the virtual waiting room, thevirtual waiting room can be closed and the resources for the virtualwaiting room can be released.

When the virtual waiting room concepts are applied to a video conferencebridge, the virtual waiting room is a temporary waiting bridge for userswho are joining a video conference bridge before the allocated starttime or before the host/bridge owner is ready for them to join.Furthermore, the participants and host would be provided with feedbackmechanisms to make the waiting user experience and comfortable, naturaland productive as possible as described above in connection with FIGS.3-7D. Like the virtual waiting room, the temporary waiting bridge issupported by a secondary pool of bridge resources made available andallocated ahead of meeting start times (say within 5 minutes), asdescribed above.

Moreover, like the examples described above, an ‘early condition’ is seton the server if the video conference bridge is already in use and newattendees, not in the current meeting are attempting to join. The earlycondition can exceed the end time of the previous meeting in the case ofa meeting overrun. This caters for the case where attendees join on timeor late but the previous meeting is still running. While in this modeattendees who join ahead of the host being ready for the next meetingare temporarily hosted on the temporary allocated bridge resource.

To summarize, embodiments are presented herein to prevent next meetingattendees from inadvertently barging into an in-progress meeting in avirtual meeting room. A visual feedback is presented to attendees toshow that the virtual meeting room/video conference bridge is currentlyin use and that they are in a holding place, i.e., a virtual meetingroom or temporary conference bridge. A visual feedback may be presentedto the host/owner to show that people are gathering or in place for thenext meeting. A mechanism may be provided to allow the host to indicateto newly arriving attendees that the meeting will begin shortly. Ameeting can start more naturally without awkward interruptions in aprevious meeting.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of the server 20, according to anexample embodiment. The server 20 may take the form of an applicationrunning in a data center or cloud computing environment. The server 20includes one or more processors 700, a network interface unit 710 and amemory 720. The processor 700 may be a microprocessor ormicrocontroller, or several instances of such devices. The networkinterface unit 710 may include one or more network interface cards thatenable network connectivity for the server 20.

The memory may 720 may include read only memory (ROM), random accessmemory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media devices, optical storage mediadevices, flash memory devices, electrical, optical, or other physicallytangible (i.e., non-transitory) memory storage devices. Thus, ingeneral, the memory 720 may comprise one or more tangible(non-transitory) computer readable storage media (e.g., memorydevice(s)) encoded with software or firmware that comprises computerexecutable instructions.

To this end, the memory 720 stores instructions for meeting room controlsoftware 730, which in turn includes instructions for virtual waitingroom control software 740 and virtual waiting room configurationinformation 750 indicating default configurations as well asconfigurations set by a meeting room owner. When processor(s) 700execute the meeting room control software 730, the processor(s) 700perform the operations described above in connection with FIGS. 1-9D.

The above description is intended by way of example only. Variousmodifications and structural changes may be made therein withoutdeparting from the scope of the concepts described herein and within thescope and range of equivalents of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: at a server that managesmeetings in a virtual meeting room on behalf of a virtual meeting roomowner: receiving a request from an attendee to join a meeting in thevirtual meeting room; displaying a graphical user interface control witha first prompt to the virtual meeting room owner to open a virtualwaiting room; determining an identity of the attendee, wherein theidentity of the attendee includes a hierarchical relationship level ofthe attendee within an organization; determining, based onconfigurations set by the virtual meeting room owner, whether to connectthe attendee to the virtual waiting room; automatically connecting theattendee to the virtual waiting room in accordance with theconfigurations set by the virtual meeting room owner and in accordancewith the identity of the attendee; and displaying a second prompt to thevirtual meeting room owner indicating that the attendee is in thevirtual waiting room waiting for the start of the meeting, the secondprompt further indicating the name and hierarchal relationship level ofthe attendee within the organization to enable the virtual meeting roomowner to determine a length of time to keep the attendee waiting in thevirtual waiting room.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprisinginstantiating the virtual waiting room with a pool of resources.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising determining that the virtualmeeting room owner is not available to join the meeting because thevirtual meeting room owner has not connected to the virtual meetingroom.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that thevirtual meeting room owner is not available to join the meeting becausethe virtual meeting room owner is in a meeting still in-progress in thevirtual meeting room.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprisingautomatically opening the virtual waiting room a predetermined period oftime prior to the start time of the meeting, and wherein connectingcomprises automatically connecting the attendee to the virtual meetingroom.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically openingthe virtual waiting room at a predetermined time, and wherein connectingcomprises automatically connecting the attendee to the virtual meetingroom.
 7. The method of claim 4, further comprising displaying to one ormore attendees in the virtual waiting room a message indicating that thevirtual meeting room owner is not yet available.
 8. The method of claim7, further comprising playing to the one or more attendees in thevirtual waiting room a video program.
 9. The method of claim 7, furthercomprising displaying to one or more attendees a list of the attendeesin the virtual waiting room.
 10. The method of claim 7, furthercomprising enabling audio, video and content sharing interactionsbetween multiple attendees in the virtual waiting which are comparableto interactions available in the virtual meeting room.
 11. The method ofclaim 4, further comprising displaying to the virtual meeting room ownera message indicating how many people are in the virtual waiting room.12. The method of claim 4, further comprising displaying only to thevirtual meeting room owner a notification that the attendee for a nextmeeting is in the virtual waiting room.
 13. The method of claim 12,further comprising receiving from the virtual meeting room owner acommand to open an audio or video connection to the attendee in thevirtual waiting room to allow audio or video communication between theattendee and virtual meeting room owner.
 14. The method of claim 13,further comprising receiving from the virtual meeting room owner acommand to close the audio or video connection to the attendee in thevirtual waiting room.
 15. The method of claim 13, further comprisingreceiving from the virtual meeting room owner a command to add theattendee who is in the virtual waiting room into the virtual meetingroom.
 16. An apparatus comprising: a network interface unit configuredfor network communication with user devices of attendees of a virtualmeeting in virtual meeting room that is managed on behalf of a virtualmeeting room owner; a processor coupled to the network interface unit,and configured to: receive a request from an attendee to join a meetingin the virtual meeting room; display a graphical user interface controlwith a first prompt to the virtual meeting room owner to open a virtualwaiting room; determine an identity of the attendee, wherein theidentity of the attendee includes a hierarchical relationship level ofthe attendee within an organization; determine, based on configurationsset by the virtual meeting room owner, whether to connect the attendeeto the virtual waiting room; automatically connect the attendee to thevirtual waiting room in accordance with the configurations set by thevirtual meeting room owner and in accordance with the identity of theattendee; and display a second prompt to the virtual meeting room ownerindicating that the attendee is in the virtual waiting room waiting forthe start of the meeting, the second prompt further indicating the nameand hierarchal relationship level of the attendee within theorganization to enable the virtual meeting room owner to determine alength of time to keep the attendee waiting in the virtual waiting room.17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to determine that the virtual meeting room owner is in ameeting still-in progress in the virtual meeting room.
 18. The apparatusof claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to automatically openthe virtual waiting room a predetermined of time prior to the start timeof the meeting, and to automatically connect the attendee to the virtualmeeting room.
 19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor isconfigured to receive from the virtual meeting room owner a command toopen an audio or video connection to the attendee in the virtual meetingroom to allow audio or video communication between the attendee and thevirtual meeting room owner.
 20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein theprocessor is configured to receive from the virtual meeting room owner acommand to add the attendee who is in the virtual waiting room into thevirtual meeting room.
 21. A non-transitory computer readable storagemedia storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause theprocessor to: receive a request from an attendee to join a meeting in avirtual meeting room that is managed on behalf of a virtual meeting roomowner; display a graphical user interface control with a prompt to thevirtual meeting room owner to open a virtual waiting room; determine anidentity of the attendee, wherein the identity of the attendee includesa hierarchical relationship level of the attendee within anorganization; determine, based on configurations set by the virtualmeeting room owner, whether to connect the attendee to the virtualwaiting room; automatically connect the attendee to the virtual waitingroom in accordance with the configurations set by the virtual meetingroom owner and in accordance with the identity of the attendee; anddisplay a second prompt to the virtual meeting room owner indicatingthat the attendee is in the virtual waiting room waiting for the startof the meeting, the second prompt further indicating the name andhierarchal relationship level of the attendee within the organization toenable the virtual meeting room owner to determine a length of time tokeep the attendee waiting in the virtual waiting room.
 22. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 21, furthercomprising instructions that cause the processor to determine that thevirtual meeting room owner is in a meeting still-in progress in thevirtual meeting room.
 23. The non-transitory computer readable storagemedia of claim 21, further comprising instructions that cause theprocessor to automatically open the virtual waiting room a predeterminedof time prior to the start time of the meeting, and to automaticallyconnect the attendee to the virtual meeting room.
 24. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage media of claim 21, further comprisinginstructions that cause the processor to receive from the virtualmeeting room owner a command to open an audio or video connection to theattendee in the virtual meeting room to allow audio or videocommunication between the attendee and the virtual meeting room owner.25. The non-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 24,further comprising instructions that cause the processor to receive fromthe virtual meeting room owner a command to add the attendee who is inthe virtual waiting room into the virtual meeting room.
 26. Theapparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to:instantiate the virtual waiting room with a pool of resources.
 27. Theapparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to:display to one or more attendees in the virtual waiting room a messageindicating that the virtual meeting room owner is not yet available. 28.The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the processor is further configuredto: play to the one or more attendees in the virtual waiting room avideo program.
 29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the processor isfurther configured to: display to one or more attendees a list of theattendees in the virtual waiting room.
 30. The apparatus of claim 27,wherein the processor is further configured to: enable audio, video andcontent sharing interactions between multiple attendees in the virtualwaiting which are comparable to interactions available in the virtualmeeting room.
 31. The non-transitory computer readable storage media ofclaim 21, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to:instantiate the virtual waiting room with a pool of resources.
 32. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 21, furthercomprising instructions that cause the processor to: display to one ormore attendees in the virtual waiting room a message indicating that thevirtual meeting room owner is not yet available.
 33. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage media of claim 32, further comprisinginstructions that cause the processor to: display to one or moreattendees a list of the attendees in the virtual waiting room.
 34. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage media of claim 32, furthercomprising instructions that cause the processor to: enable audio, videoand content sharing interactions between multiple attendees in thevirtual waiting which are comparable to interactions available in thevirtual meeting room.
 35. A method for conducting online video meetingscomprising: establishing a first virtual meeting room, the first virtualmeeting room associated with a meeting host and hosting a first virtualmeeting including the meeting host and a first meeting participant;establishing a second virtual meeting room, the second virtual meetingroom associated with the meeting host; receiving, during the firstvirtual meeting in the first virtual meeting room, a request from asecond meeting participant to join a meeting with the meeting host;determining a relationship between the second meeting participant andthe meeting host based on information associated with the second meetingparticipant; determining, based on configurations set by the meetinghost, whether to connect the second meeting participant to the firstvirtual meeting room; connecting the second meeting participant to thefirst virtual meeting in the first virtual meeting room in accordancewith the determination based on the configurations set by the meetinghost and the relationship between the meeting host and the secondmeeting participant; displaying a graphical user interface control witha first prompt to the meeting host to open the second virtual meetingroom; displaying a second prompt to the meeting host indicating that thesecond meeting participant is in the first virtual meeting room, thesecond prompt further indicating an identifier associated with thesecond meeting participant; in response to a first instruction from themeeting host, moving the second meeting participant from the firstvirtual meeting in the first virtual meeting room to a second virtualmeeting in the second virtual meeting room; and in response to a secondinstruction from the meeting host, moving the meeting host from thefirst virtual meeting in the first virtual meeting room to the secondvirtual meeting in the second virtual meeting room.
 36. The method ofclaim 35, wherein the first virtual meeting room has been previouslyassigned to the meeting host for recurring use by the meeting host. 37.The method of claim 35, wherein the relationship between the secondmeeting participant and the meeting host comprises an indication thatthe second meeting participant is a member of the same organization asthe meeting host.
 38. The method of claim 35, wherein the relationshipbetween the second meeting participant and the meeting host comprises anindication that the second meeting participant is a member of anorganization allowed by the meeting host.
 39. The method of claim 35,wherein moving the meeting host from the first virtual meeting in thefirst virtual meeting room to the second virtual meeting in the secondvirtual meeting room comprises opening a connection to the secondmeeting participant in the second virtual meeting room to allow audioand video communication between the second meeting participant and themeeting host.
 40. The method of claim 35, further comprising receivingfrom the meeting host an instruction to subsequently move the secondmeeting participant from the second virtual meeting in the secondvirtual meeting room to the first virtual meeting in the first virtualmeeting room.
 41. The method of claim 35, wherein the second virtualmeeting room is instantiated from the first virtual meeting room. 42.The method of claim 35, wherein the first virtual meeting room providesaudio communication among participants in the first virtual meeting roomand provides display regions where video of participants in the firstvirtual meeting room is presented, and the second virtual meeting roomprovides audio communication among participants in the second virtualmeeting room and provides display regions where video of participants inthe second virtual meeting room is presented.
 43. The method of claim42, wherein the first virtual meeting room further provides a displayregion where shared content is displayed to participants in the firstvirtual meeting room, and the second virtual meeting room furtherprovides a display region where shared content is displayed toparticipants in the second virtual meeting room.
 44. An apparatuscomprising: a network interface configured to enable communication, in avideo conference, between a meeting host and participants via userdevices; a memory configured to store instructions and data to supportthe video conference; and one or more processors coupled to the networkinterface and the memory, and configured to: establish a first virtualmeeting room, the first virtual meeting room associated with a meetinghost and hosting a first virtual meeting including the meeting host anda first meeting participant; establish a second virtual meeting room,the second virtual meeting room associated with the meeting host;receive, during the first virtual meeting in the first virtual meetingroom, a request from a second meeting participant to join a meeting withthe meeting host; determine a relationship between the second meetingparticipant and the meeting host based on information associated withthe second meeting participant; determine, based on configurations setby the meeting host, whether to connect the second meeting participantto the first virtual meeting room; connect the second meetingparticipant to the first virtual meeting in the first virtual meetingroom in accordance with the determination based on the configurationsset by the meeting host and the relationship between the meeting hostand the second meeting participant; display a graphical user interfacecontrol with a first prompt to the meeting host to open the secondvirtual meeting room; display a second prompt to the meeting hostindicating that the second meeting participant is in the first virtualmeeting room, the second prompt further indicating an identifierassociated with the second meeting participant; in response to a firstinstruction from the meeting host, move the second meeting participantfrom the first virtual meeting in the first virtual meeting room to asecond virtual meeting in the second virtual meeting room; and inresponse to a second instruction from the meeting host, move the meetinghost from the first virtual meeting in the first virtual meeting room tothe second virtual meeting in the second virtual meeting room.
 45. Theapparatus of claim 44, wherein the first virtual meeting room has beenpreviously assigned to the meeting host for recurring use by the meetinghost.
 46. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the relationship betweenthe second meeting participant and the meeting host comprises anindication that the second meeting participant is a member of the sameorganization as the meeting host.
 47. The apparatus of claim 44, whereinthe relationship between the second meeting participant and the meetinghost comprises an indication that the second meeting participant is amember of an organization allowed by the meeting host.
 48. The apparatusof claim 44, wherein the one or more processors are configured to movethe meeting host from the first virtual meeting in the first virtualmeeting room to the second virtual meeting in the second virtual meetingroom by opening a connection to the second meeting participant in thesecond virtual meeting room to allow audio and video communicationbetween the second meeting participant and the meeting host.
 49. Theapparatus of claim 44, wherein the one or more processors are furtherconfigured to receive from the meeting host an instruction to move thesecond meeting participant from the second virtual meeting in the secondvirtual meeting room to the first virtual meeting in the first virtualmeeting room.
 50. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the second virtualmeeting room is instantiated from the first virtual meeting room.
 51. Amethod for conducting online video meetings comprising: establishing afirst virtual meeting room, the first virtual meeting room associatedwith a meeting host and hosting a first virtual meeting including themeeting host and a first meeting participant; establishing a secondvirtual meeting room, the second virtual meeting room associated withthe meeting host; receiving, during the first virtual meeting in thefirst virtual meeting room, a request from a second meeting participantto join a meeting with the meeting host; determining a relationshipbetween the second meeting participant and the meeting host based oninformation associated with the second meeting participant; determining,based on configurations set by the meeting host, whether to connect thesecond meeting participant to the first virtual meeting room or to thesecond virtual meeting room; connecting the second meeting participantto a second virtual meeting in the second virtual meeting room inaccordance with the determination based on the configurations set by themeeting host and the relationship between the meeting host and thesecond meeting participant; displaying a graphical user interfacecontrol with a first prompt to the meeting host to open the secondvirtual meeting room; displaying a second prompt to the meeting hostindicating that the second meeting participant is in the second virtualmeeting room, the second prompt further indicating an identifierassociated with the second meeting participant; in response to a firstinstruction from the meeting host, moving the meeting host from thefirst virtual meeting in the first virtual meeting room to a secondvirtual meeting in the second virtual meeting room including the meetinghost and the second meeting participant; and in response to a secondinstruction from the meeting host, moving the meeting host from thesecond virtual meeting in the second virtual meeting room to the firstvirtual meeting in the first virtual meeting room.
 52. The method ofclaim 51, wherein the first virtual meeting room has been previouslyassigned to the meeting host for recurring use by the meeting host. 53.The method of claim 51, wherein the relationship between the secondmeeting participant and the meeting host comprises an indication thatthe second meeting participant is a member of the same organization asthe meeting host.
 54. The method of claim 51, wherein the relationshipbetween the second meeting participant and the meeting host comprises anindication that the second meeting participant is a member of anorganization allowed by the meeting host.
 55. The method of claim 51,wherein moving the meeting host from the first virtual meeting in thefirst virtual meeting room to the second virtual meeting in the secondvirtual meeting room comprises opening a connection to the secondmeeting participant in the second virtual meeting room to allow audioand video communication between the second meeting participant and themeeting host.
 56. The method of claim 51, further comprising receivingfrom the meeting host an instruction to move the second meetingparticipant from the second virtual meeting in the second virtualmeeting room to the first virtual meeting in the first virtual meetingroom.
 57. The method of claim 51, wherein the second virtual meetingroom is instantiated from the first virtual meeting room.